The Obama administration opposed House passage of the Energy and Water appropriations bill that funds the U.S. Department of Energy, saying it prevents cheaper alternatives for plutonium disposition. The president, in his budget request, proposed $196 million to shutter the MOX facility, but backers of the multibillion-dollar project recommended more money and specified the funds had to be used for construction.

“The Administration strongly objects to language that would require the Secretary of Energy to continue construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility,” according to a statement from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

The president reiterated his plans to place the MOX facility on standby in fiscal year 2015 while analyzing alternatives.

The energy and water bill was discussed on the House floor Wednesday, and a vote is expected Thursday. The bill also funds programs under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The MOX facility, which employs about 1,800 workers and is 60 percent complete, is being built to convert 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium into commercial reactor fuel. About $4 billion has been spent on construction so far, and the life-cycle costs were estimated at $30 billion.

In June, House appropriators recommended $345 million for MOX and the Senate $400 million. Both specified the money had to be used for construction.

South Carolina politicians, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. Joe Wilson, have said bipartisan support for MOX kept them optimistic about the future of the project.

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Where's that MOX life-cycle cost estimate from AREVA and Senator Graham and Rep. Wilson? Us poor tax payers who are getting bilked by the exploding cost of MOX are on the edge of our seats waiting for that information to be released..... I'm not sure which is worse for those of us who pay the bills, you lot (as the Brits would say) or the DOE-NNSA axis. A dodgy crew all rowing in the same sinking MOX boat.

It appears that the current administration plans on turning South Carolina into a nuclear waste dump. All of this nuslear waste is coming in, but none of it can leave, thanks to the shutdown of the brand new nuclear waste depository out west.

The US spent millions (if not billions) to create a perfect waste dump at Yucca Mountain Nevada, only to have 'King Harry' Reid step in at the last minute and bar it from being used. The only solution for SC is to get him out of his position in the Senate in 2014 and then move to activate the nuclear waste depository that we have all already paid for.

Vetoing MOX is just Obama's way of getting back at red states. If MOX was in a blue state money would be no object. The government wasted over 100 billion last year alone in overpayments so is MOX funding really a waste or does Obummer want the money to waste somewhere else?

Don't put ideas in his head ! You can count on Obama doing anything and everything to stop energy production unless it involves a windmill or solar panel. The MOX facility may be a bad idea and way to expensive but these are not the real reasons he is against it.

The MOX thing is proving to be too expensive and all the money goes to the French anyways. The IFR is way better, accomplishes the same thing and is purely american. Obama should kill the stupid MOX and fund an IFR which will provide far more american jobs and create a new nuclear age. Pandora's Promise shows this technology well.